NEWS

Welcome from our Chief Executive

Oct 3, 2017 written by Autorola

Just as we enter Autumn which is a season that celebrates change we continue to experience a major change in fortune for diesels as countries introduce ways of reducing their emissions and improving urban air quality.

New diesel sales are falling while petrol demand and prices are starting to increase. In the Netherlands used diesels have totally fallen out of favour and are being exported and used petrols imported to meet the increased demand. Our Autorola online remarketing portal sits at the heart of this movement in vehicles helping to balance supply and demand.

Autorola is having a good year generally, making good progress in Brazil, Australia, Turkey, the UK and Mexico working with some high profile customers.

Our ability to react to change quickly and adapt to the changing needs of our customers is clear in our Solutions business unit newsletter profile. Using our online control and transparency the Solutions team are now busier than ever providing state of the art bespoke solutions to OEMs, banks and leasing companies. Find out more in our in depth Solutions profile. We are also profiling our MarketPlace business unit to give you an update of its progress around the globe.

Our three Business Unit teams from MarketPlace, Solutions and INDICATA will be in attendance at the forthcoming Fleet Europe Remarketing Forum in Lisbon where we are sponsors for the fifth year running. Come and visit our booth on December 5th and 6th.Peter GroftehaugeAutorola Group CEO

About Autorola Marketplace

Oct 3, 2017 written by Autorola

Morten Holmsten, global sales director of Marketplace tells us how the business unit is growing as more countries embrace the benefits of the online selling and buying of used vehicles21 years ago when Autorola opened its doors for the first time our CEO Peter Grøftehauge had a clear vision that used vehicles could be sold more efficiently online than in a physical auction.

Dedicated to making buying and selling used cars easier and more profitableThe results to Peter were clear – increased speed of sale, reduced transport movements and associated costs for vendors and ultimate convenience for buyers who could bid on and buy a vehicle from the comfort of their office desktop wherever they are in the world.

21 years on the vision has become reality with nearly 500,000 vehicles being offered for sale annually on our platform to over 70,000 registered buyers in over 35 countries with buyers being able to use their desk top or smart phone to bid on stock. Our vendors range from global OEMs and leasing companies to global rental countries and large dealer groups.

More countries are embracing online remarketingThe majority of our 19 subsidiary countries have built their businesses on the principles of online remarketing. With some it has been slower than others to educate them about the benefits of online compared with physical auction, while other countries have immediately embraced the use of technology in the sector and are growing very quickly.

Turkey grew by 162% last year helped by the fact that the country is very online savvy. The Turkish remarketing sector is still developing compared with other established European countries. Our team are working with vendors and buyers who are accepting online as a very efficient form of used vehicle disposal. Due to the size of the country reduced transport costs are also a massive benefit for vendors.

Growth in our online insurance salvage business in AustraliaAustralia grew by a similar amount in 2016 helped by the growth of its online insurance salvage business. Our business model of a salvage vehicle being towed to a local agent and being sold on behalf of the insurer to an online buyer makes sense bearing in mind the huge distances involved in Australia.

With the pressure on everybody within the automotive industry to reduce emissions to improve air quality particularly in urban areas, the reduced transport costs associated with online remarketing are making a big difference to our major vendors. They are signing up to Autorola to sell their vehicles more quickly and reduce the road miles associated with physical auction.

Premium car makers now working with MexicoMexico is another country where we are re-writing the rules of remarketing and three premium car makers are already starting to use our services less than two years after the country opened for business.

The UK has huge potential with the launch of weekly sales for LeasePlan and Arval, and Germany, Spain and France are all large countries where we are predicting growth over the coming years. One of our newest countries Brazil is starting to work with OEMs such as Audi who are committed to our online, transparent disposal route to help tackle the country’s poor reputation for corruption.

Cross border sales continue to grow via the Autorola platformAn area that continues to grow is the cross border sales through our online portal. Europe in particular is still trying to balance out its used vehicle supply following the most recent recession while a move to low emission vehicles virtually overnight is forcing countries to import or export vehicles to meet market demands.

Thousands of used vehicles each week are imported and exported around Europe via our online portal and we are helping countries like Portugal cater for the huge increase in consumer demand for used cars. French dealers are importing huge numbers of used cars, particularly Peugeots from other countries while OEMs and dealers in the Netherlands are exporting used cars following a recent government legislation change which has reduced the demand for used diesels.

Three business units set up to meet customer demandsA few years ago we adopted a business unit structure – MarketPlace, Solutions and INDICATA – to adapt our service proposition based on the demands of our customers. Our INDICATA real time used vehicle business intelligence system is now supporting OEMs and their dealers to increase the efficiency and profitability of their used vehicle sales operations. Solutions is helping larger vendors manage their assets more efficiently from the time a car is ordered to when it is sold, through its Fleet Monitor asset inspection and management system.

UK launches INDICATA

Oct 3, 2017 written by Autorola

The UK is the 13th country in the Autorola group to launch the INDICATA business intelligence and insight software platform for used vehicle management.

Developed for dealers and OEMs initially, INDICATA collates, analyses and processes real-time data on used vehicles offered in the UK market giving dealers powerful market insights to help increase their stock turn and profitability.

Used vehicle profitability is vital for UK dealers“Used vehicles are an important source of revenue and profit for all UK OEMs and their dealers and INDICATA has been developed to give them the tools to help further increase the efficiency and profitability of their businesses,” explained Neil Gilligan, INDICATA national business development manager.

“INDICATA has been providing a valuable series of insights to dealers across the globe for the past two years. After a successful pilot in the UK it is now fully operational,” he added.

Price competition will help dealers sell more cars more quicklyINDICATA tracks the price development and number of stocking days of the dealer’s stock and competing vehicles. Parameters such as price, mileage and age of vehicles are factored into comparisons.

It also compares a dealers’ inventory and prices with competing vehicles in the market to help ensure its stock stays competitive and ultimately sells as quickly as possible

Price positioning, market days’ supply and trends are presented in dashboards as KPIs as well as giving the user the ability to download reports in excel.

An introduction to Autorola Solutions

Oct 3, 2017 written by Autorola

As vehicle management techniques and asset owners’ priorities change Autorola Solutions’ priority is to customise its solutions to accommodate these requests.Its focus is to individually design asset management solutions covering the specific needs of large fleet owners of every size in OEM, bank and leasing segments globally.

Everything it delivers is bespoke as Autorola is aware at this level one size does not fit all.The ability to grow and drive digital transformation is at the heart of positioning Autorola Solutions as a forward-thinking, efficiency-improving and values-centred business unit.

Fleet Monitor workflow monitoring toolAt the heart of the Solutions offering is the Fleet Monitor workflow monitoring tool which is focussed on helping asset owners control in-fleet and de-fleet processes in order to optimise their profit. It covers all stages of fleet management, from the time the car is ordered through a dealer, to its time in use with a driver, to it being defleeted through online and physical channels and its final reporting.

It helps improve service levels and lead-times across all aspects of all in-fleet to de-fleet processes. Ultimately the system integration allows fleets to combine a workflow that allows fleets to plan and control all activities from one single access point.

End to end value chainThe system records various customized gateways that each vehicle must pass through, such as arrival, handover to drivers, return, inspection and sales. This means an end-to-end value chain is easily managed in a structured and transparent way allowing constant monitoring and work flow improvement – from in-fleet to de-fleet and sales.

Autorola has developed Fleet Monitor in house and features all the benefits of online control and transparency that Autorola is famous for. This is combined with the skills and experience of a consultancy team that gets under the skin of a fleet’s requirements to fine tune the workflows and processes to match a customer’s exacting requirements.

UniCredit Leasing Italy, Kia Motors Austria and Jyske Finans Denmark are just three of the happy customers that are working with Solutions. To find out more go to www.autorolagroup.com/about/solutions/

Zijad Halilovic from Autorola Netherlands on how its online portal is helping bring stability to the used car marketThe Netherlands is aiming for half of its new car sales by 2025 to be electric or hybrid as part of a Green Deal which incentivises company car drivers to choose a low emission car to reduce their personal tax.

However, the used car market is still trying to play catch up and currently is in disarray, with consumer used demand for smaller petrols outweighing the supply of petrol cars in the market. Meanwhile diesel demand continues to fall.

Used car disconnect between supply and demandThis has caused a huge disconnect with OEMs, leasing groups and dealer groups having to export used diesels to other European countries, including eastern Europe.

Autorola’s online remarketing platform is at the heart of this export strategy with used cars being loaded onto the portal daily and then purchased by the thousands of active buyers it has across Europe. Used cars are being exported to Portugal, Germany and Denmark.

Used petrol cars are being imported to satisfy consumer demandOn the buyer front OEMs and their dealers are being forced to import used petrol cars into the Netherlands to satisfy current demand. The Autorola platform is being used by Dutch buyers to bid on and import small to medium sized used petrol cars from across mainland Europe.

“Autorola Netherlands has seen major growth based on more used cars being imported and exported through our portal. This so called cross border used vehicle activity is forcing OEMs, leasing companies and dealer groups to think on a European level now not just a country level. For some this is very difficult. Only those that think on a European level will survive,” said Zijad Halilovic.

The used market working on a European perspective“The new car market is about the local market and the used market is based on a European perspective. This is a very new concept for many and one that we are helping buyers and vendors to come to terms with,” he added.

In the meantime sales of new zero emission and hybrid cars continues to grow and Autorola predicts it will be around 2020 before the used market mirrors the stability of the new market.

Turkey has launched INDICATA, the first car value guide in the country

Oct 3, 2017 written by Autorola

Autorola Turkey’s has launched INDICATA, the country’s first ever used car values guide and is making used stock available to local and national buyers.The government’s decision to increase its special consumption tax in late 2016 by 3% on models costing 40,000-70,000 lira has helped ignite consumer demand for used cars. The Turkish used car market is around 3.5 million used cars in size but is expanding nationally not just in Istanbul.

“Historically much of the used car business has been based just around Istanbul. The used market is now maturing quite quickly and trade buyers across Turkey have been very open to purchasing used cars online.

10 major vendors have joined our online revolution in 12 months“We have signed up 10 major vendors in the past 12 months which reinforces the response to online remarketing. Turkey is a big country and it is uneconomical to keep moving vehicles round to sell them. This vendor growth has helped us provide a wide mix of stock for buyers which they have responded to very well,” explained Saygi.

A major investment in the country’s transport infrastructure is also helping take away the focus just on Istanbul as the economic capital of Turkey. Better road networks will help spread the external investment to other cities and Autorola is playing its part by running regional online used car auctions in nine different cities.

Local buyers can buy locally or nationally“It’s all about local buyers being able to buy used cars from both local and national vendors. The response has been positive from buyers as they are getting the chance to bid on stock that would normally end up in Istanbul,” he added.

One challenge for the Turkish market is knowing what used cars are worth which has been supported by the launch of INDICATA, the country’s first real time used vehicle pricing system.

INDICATA is enabling valuation of used cars for the first timeINDICATA is helping both the OEM and local dealer understand the true value of used cars based on local demand and supply. The system takes a regular overview of websites advertising used cars and its dashboard enables a dealer or asset owner to understand the true supply and pricing of all used cars both nationally and regionally

“Dealers can use the data proactively to sell more used cars and importantly reduce stocking days. They will be able to adjust prices up or down on a weekly basis to ensure their used stock remains competitive and only buy in new stock they know is in high demand. INDICATA gives the market the most dynamic insight into the used industry and OEMs and their dealers are already actively piloting the system.

“We cannot underestimate how important this launch has been. Ultimately further maturity of the used market helped by the likes of INDICATA will ensure Turkey quickly catches up with other European countries,” said Saygi.

Autorola Brazil is experiencing an increased demand for its online inspection and remarketing services as it supports the country’s fight against its corruption levels.

It is having a record year based on European car companies, fleet owners and rental and leasing vendors investing in the transparency of Autorola’s online portal.

Companies embrace online transparency“Company decision makers like the fact that everything is open and transparent, right from the recording of an inspection of a car and upload of a vehicle’s condition to the sales portal to the vehicle payment process. Autorola Brazil is more than just an intermediary of remarketing of vehicles. It presents a demobilisation process, based on its values of transparency, flexibility and accuracy,” said Autorola Brazil country manager Marly Fialho Kierulf.

“Our experience in Brazil follows the culture of Denmark. They like the fact that Autorola is a Danish online business and that there is very little or no corruption in its home country. It gives them a confidence to use and trade on our online channels,” she added.

Used car market continues to thriveOn the back of a falling new market, the used car sector has continued to thrive with strong demand for smaller, low value used cars such as Toyota and Hyundai and with prestige brands such as Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo and even Ducati motorcycles.

The lower and middle classes have been most affected by a recession but the upper classes continue to demand higher value prestige cars. For months Autorola could have sold double the amount of prestige used cars on its portal.

Audi Brazil has been an Autorola customer since 2014Since 2014 Autorola Brazil has carried out inspections and online remarketing through a Sales Cascade programme for the car maker’s management, press and HQ demonstrator cars. The used cars are inspected across the country using Autorola’s online inspection system and are then uploaded onto the Autorola Brazil remarketing portal complete with images and a detailed condition report.

Autorola works with Audi to fine tune prices to ensure stock is priced perfectly to tie in with market conditions before the cars go live. The three-stage cascade auction offers used cars to its franchise dealer network first and then those that aren’t sold, normally around 10-15%, are then offered out to Autorola Brazil’s 6,000 active B2B buyers.

Audi prices are strong and a car is traceable“Generally Cascade sales have a conversion rate of 100% as buyers trust the process, the declared condition of the cars and know they will only take delivery of the car once the funds have passed to the vendor. Vendors are in turn very happy at the transparency at the process, including receiving payment before the car is delivered from a registered Autorola Brazil buyer,” said an Audi Brasil spokesman.

“Audi prices have been at around 75% of a car’s original cost, which is very strong. Importantly the reports that Autorola Brazil sends to the vendor traces the car’s life from when it is registered to when it is sold and who the buyer is. If there is a query from a buyer, Autorola Brazil manages it in close co-operation with our used car team reinforcing that the human element supports the online proposition well,” he added.

Rental and leasing companies are working with AutorolaAutorola is now turning its attention to the rental and leasing industries as they are also keen to run a corruption free disposal operation. In July and August Autorola was tasked with selling a few hundred used cars quickly to free up the vendor’s cashflow and is just about to enter into an agreement to manage the inspection and remarketing of a major rental buy back deal.

“We are doing out bit with our customers to ensure that good wins over evil. We hope the entire market will come round to Autorola’s way of thinking in the next few years. Ultimately the automotive market is a big part of Brazil’s industrial success story so it would be good to see it was the first to achieve a zero corruption status with our help,” explained Kierulf.